this is deja vu news live from berlin germany's covert 19 crisis with daily infections and death still at very high levels chance i'm going back oh it is alive in berlin right now preparing to field questions from the press among them is likely to be why does the country's vaccination drive appear to be stalling. i'm sumi so much going to thank you for joining us as we mentioned we are following

germany's covert 19 crisis in chancellor angela merkel is preparing now to take questions from journalists on her government's covert 19 strategy let's go right to that press conference and see if we can listen in to the chancellor's words as she gets started federal press conference we are independent and we are not part of the german government the berlin parliament journalists are usually here which is why these press conferences are organized and chaired by journalists which is a tradition for a long time and we're pleased that you are here again madam chancellor i think you were here 3 times more pleased that you are following that with the 1st month of the year you have the from madam chancellor ladies and gentlemen. we find ourselves in a very difficult phase of the pandemic and this was the reason why the heads of state and government of the federal states and the national government. continue their

deliberations on tuesday and didn't wait until next monday as originally planned and that is also the reason why i am once again here and very happily so i want to give your sense of my analysis and evaluation of the situation and then of course respond to any questions you may have and i want to thank the federal press conference for inviting me to do so we find ourselves in a very difficult phase of the pandemic and why is that the case because we have a bit of a fractured image on the one hand we're seeing the daily number of infections declining finally that's the good news and there are fewer people on intensive care ward says than there were. around christmas and before christmas this is good news as well because since the beginning of the pandemic it has always been about not exceeding the response capacity of our public health systems so it's not just a medical question. of i've said this often enough but other people today again

it's not health or business health or education health or culture they're not a contradiction in terms. exceeding the response capacity of the public health system serves the people it serves business culture the economy everything. and we cannot imagine often enough what would happen if we were to wait with the measures to tighten them up or if we had waited in the past until i see use were over a foot filled that would have been too late and this is why it is very necessary and very encouraging that the current situation is easing a bit that shows that the tough measures that people in germany have hat live under for weeks now are starting to pay off and it shows that it's worth the effort and i

can only once again most cordially thank all of the efforts of the people in this country for pulling together we know that this virus is very hard for all of us to bear. but i said at the beginning that there was a sort of a fractured image. and that was the good news on the other hand we're also seeing seeing shockingly high levels of mortalities today again over 1000 people dead these aren't just numbers these are people who died alone these are people's lives these are families grieving and this is something we need to bear in mind again and again and i'm bevan beyond that one of the things we're struggling with at the moment is that all of the efforts we are putting into place to contain the virus cannot exclude one real risk and this risk is something we can see more clearly now than we could at the beginning of the air

and that is the mutation of the virus particularly in britain and in ireland but also in denmark and the netherlands and we have cases of it here as well. based on what we know so far the mutant strain of the virus is considerably more contagious than the one we've been living with for the last year and that this is the main reason for the new shocking rise in cases in ireland and britain this mutant strain has been detected here in germany but it is not dominant and all the same we must take this serious threat from this virus very very seriously i cannot stress this. strongly enough we need to slow down the spread of this mutant virus we mustn't wait until this virus flares up here and that's reflected in explosively new rises of cases

that it would be too late to have an even stronger wave of the pandemic probably a stronger one that we've seen so far we can still prevent it and this is why our consultations with the state premiers. the day before yesterday focused on this there's still a little bit of time to try to prevent the danger that this new strain of the virus means so it's about precautionary measures and this is why the national government and the state governments have decided on tighter measures to bring down the cases. the caseload that we have here in germany before the mutant strain of the virus spreads even further this evening at the video conference of the heads of state and government of the european union this mutant virus mutant strain will be a focus we'll be talking about this mutant strain we'll be talking about how we can

ensure that we have similar measures in place across the european union to combat the spread the virus because an epidemic a logical terms as the european union we are one area. we'll also be talking about sequencing to get a clear overview of the mutant strain of the virus it will also be the subject will also be vaccines and other aspects of this we have therefore taking precautionary measures for our country precautionary measures for the health of the people in this country and therefore automatically put it's a precaution for our business for our culture for our environment because if we see explosively high spreads of the infection this will overwhelm our hospitals everything we are doing to put in another way is aimed at condemning containing the pandemic and overcoming it. so fast stop at this point and

respond flee to your questions thank you very much there are plenty of questions many people in the room have asked for the floor so i'm already having to warn people that we're not going to be able to ask and answer every question because as in every press conference here for reasons of the virus we are limiting ourselves to one hour after that we'll have to stop because at this press conference we want to sit people down as far apart from one another as possible so for the reasons of the pandemic i'd like to ask you to keep your masks on when you ask your questions mr taaffe is also going to be asking some questions that we have as well and let me remind you that there will is one question and possibly one question of traffic action after is mr loza mr mr

langham's. mr loza where you. mr lerner actually we'll start with you since you're further away from the mike. i've got a question for you. we sorry this there's a technical problem we can't hear this question very much. but as sensually it's about a discussion that was just had between the government and the regions. in mind i think that the decisions that we have made have always been on the basis of consensus obviously you know it's not the case that it's the national government and the federal state governments that is not appropriate there are many different views among the different state premiers and we find

a balanced agreement i very much appreciate these discussions that we have even if they take a lot of time and they are quite laborious but because we arrive at agreements that everyone can support and i think that's and the people in this country expect from us. if there is sometimes a bit of frustration among the people in germany then that's because we sometimes do not speak with one voice and i would like us to do that as much as possible which is why it is important to have these negotiations and many of the things that we agree still have to be implemented in the federal states you know where federal country and i appreciate this cooperation even if it isn't always necessarily simple but that's part and it's part and parcel of policy making in the coalition agreement meetings that we have it's not always that easy or interim in a stereo coordination isn't that easy either it's just part of the job.

ok if you're just joining us chancellor merkel there's been speaking here in berlin on the cover 1000 crisis in germany answering a question there about her government's approach and germany has extended its lockdown until february 14th introduce some new tougher measures like more working from home also medical grade masks in shops and public transit and we heard the chancellor there say that it's a difficult phase still even though infection rates are starting to drop in germany well our political correspondent jared reed has been listening into the chancers words with us hi jerry it's good to see you tell us more about what the chancellor had to say about the state of the pandemic right now and also her government's approach. well as you say repeatedly we are in a difficult phase of the pandemic right now and she said that there is

a sort of fractured image where it's encouraging that there are fewer people in intensive care and that the 7 day infection rights are dropping and that all these hard work is starting to pay off as she said but there is the other side the shockingly high level of people dying every day i mean today for example we had over a 1000 deaths over 20000 infections these consistently high in fiction levels that aren't really significantly dropping and she's saying that there is a real risk of these mutations of the virus that a scene in the u.k. and south africa and there are also reports of one from brazil what this could mean for all the hard work that has led up to this point and she and she doesn't want all of that hard work to have been in vain basically saying that she wants to prevent these strains that have we've seen isolated cases in germany but to prevent

these strains from becoming dominant did she give any indications yet about where the situation goes from here whether the german government considering extending the lock down even further or whether there is a light really at the end of the tunnel. well she she didn't really say that but she did talk a lot about these negotiations between the federal government and the states which have being quite laborious and what what she has found a little bit difficult is she has sort of advocated for the go tough early approach i guess she's seen this in all this coming but she's met with resistance from the states or you have been worried about the economic impacts of tough measures on their economies also the psychological impacts particularly on schools but what i'm going to michael said that is she there are many different views she appreciates

these views but she would like. german leaders to speak more we've one voice going forward certainly there's been some criticism over the vaccine rollout here in germany did she discuss that and tell us a bit about why this vaccine rollout has been slow. i think that's that's to come in terms of the reporters' questions but what we what we do know about the vaccine rollout is that it has simply been hampered by lack of production capacity and what we've heard from authorities in the last week is that when more start to get produced then more people will be able to be vaccinated and unfortunately there is a bit of a hold off in production from the vaccine being developed by pfizer and by on tech but what we know is that around 1.2 just under 1200000 people in germany have

received at least one of the vaccine so far and generally you have more than one maybe 2 vaccinations and around i think just under 50000 have received the 2nd vaccination so obviously still a very very long way to go in terms of the rollout in the meantime this certainly is a continuation of the lockdown and restrictions that it is the german public still behind these restrictions. largely yes recent polling has shown around 40 percent are happy with strict images around 20 percent would have liked them to have stayed as they were before they were extended by a month but around a 3rd are really hoping for the light at the end of the tunnel they want restrictions to be eased or incompletely but if we're looking at the overall picture largely yes support for restrictions has been

consistently high i guess what the problem has been is that there has been quite there's been restrictions on people's what people are allowed to do in private and that has not really happened on the workplace at the moment you know you're only allowed to meet with one other person from another household but generally you can still go to work where there could be an office full of people what the government wants to do with these new crackdown or these new top of the measures is to encourage employers to allow their employees to work from harm also that the infection risk at the office and on public transport in commuting is significantly reduced and yet we heard the chancellor touch on this but she will be holding a video conference with the e.u. leaders later today also on the cover $1000.00 crisis tell us what's on the agenda there. that's right america has said she's very very worried about these mutations these various strains of 19 and whether they could spread across

the continent one big topic that's going to be discussed in this online conference with e.u. leaders is the issue of border closures and what we know from the german government is that it would prefer not to have to close borders to neighboring countries but it isn't ruling it out and so if neighboring countries on eyeball to to get infection levels under control then the german government isn't ruling out having to close the borders. to those neighboring countries though it is saying it would rather not have to do that they would rather that the the entire block come up with a coordinated strategy in order to to keep infection levels down and it reduced even further as the pandemic progresses you know right our political correspondent jared to read covering this story for us as

a chance or answers questions on her government's covert 1980 jared thank you so much. now a new chapter is beginning in the united states president joe biden has already started undoing some of the policies of the trump administration on his 1st day in office he rejoined the paris climate accord and the world health organization he also ended a ban on travelers from some mainly muslim countries in his inaugural address he called for unity and a change in tone. you know how ready to get to work you u.s. president joe biden arrived at the white house ready to roll back the policies of his predecessor within hours of taking over the oval office biden signed a stack of executive orders researching the agenda only coronavirus pandemic immigration policy and climate change. we're going to. grow here. we're going to rejoin the climate of

course. as a. fellow to be wearing a mask he ordered all federal employees to do so as well biden moved quickly to fill key positions swearing in nearly 1000 new appointees and stuff virtually the new white house press secretary jens psaki heralded relations with the premise instead of attacking reporters and spreading so-called alternative facts i have deep respect for the role of a free and independent press in our democracy and for the role all of you play and as i noted earlier there will be moments when we disagree and there will certainly be days where we disagree for extensive parts of the briefing even perhaps i believe a common goal which is sharing accurate information with the american people meanwhile vice president come about how our us took up a post in the senate swearing in new members georgia with the new lawmakers the

senate is now split $5050.00 between democrats and republicans harris's vote would tip the scales there meaning the democrats now have control of both houses of congress and the power to push forward with president biden's agenda. let's go right to washington our correspondent stuff and simon is standing by for us there hi stephanie it's good to see you so the 1st day in office for president biden we saw a flurry of executive orders that tell us more about what he signed. well as you said in the piece that was quite a bit 17 executive orders nobody else in history of the united states no other president has signed more executive orders on the inaugural day so a record for joe biden what were those 17 executives all those those were a tent and yes it in a successful attempt to shred to destroy the trump legacy basically on a dime or if you will with

a pen and then exactly happened halting the signature trump policy of building a wall no more funding for this mexico didn't pay for this but the american taxpayer is not paying for this anymore either no more funding for building further more wall to the at the border to mexico immigration as you mentioned it. the halls of the band for largely muslim countries trump initiated. early on in his in his. presidency so i could go on and on and on to day to day the focus of the bride and administration will be penned demick the corona pandemic i know. chancellor merkel just responded to 2 questions this will be today happening in the white house to we have a white house press conference daily now at 4 pm local time here and there will be questions asked regarding the biden effort and the biden's plan now to make things

better in the united states on tuesday we had a 2nd largest single day death toll in the country 4229 people and as you know where over 400000 victims and debt people in the united states to do coronavirus so something has to be done by demonstration wants to get to it today yes i think it tells more about what the buy in its ministration really is planning as it's focusing now in on the pandemic what is the strategy going forward. well the certainty is and i have to say as we before i came up here some cable news networks have breaking news saying that the by the ministrations says that there is actually no plan from the trump administration left for them so apparently according to the biden administration according to sources there. trump organized the delivery of vaccines to the states and after that nothing so what does biden want he wants to spend money to exactly do this organize organize

a vaccination distribution which makes sense when it is in the state the state's needs the states need money for this so he wants to give them money same goes for p.p. e same goes for. really asking begging the americans the so-called $100.00 days to wear masks ordering on federal grounds in federal offices all federal employees to wear masks all the time when they come to work and so on so it is about money it's about restructuring the distribution of the scene and. strengthening america's ability to fight the coronavirus because america is still in the middle of fighting this current of ours in the staff and looking at the bigger picture here we heard joe biden is there not really trust call for unity anything a big challenge there i mean how realistic is that. that's a big question and a good question and i don't really have

a good answer for you as it is a challenge as you say it's enormous you have to keep in mind in context where does this country coming from this country is coming from 4 years of donald trump like him or like it or not but he has disrupted pretty much every normal political mormon. in this country and he has disrupted the society in this country furthermore i'm not saying this there was no divide before donald trump but it is entrenched now and as you say as you're right 75000000 people voted for donald trump and as of now as we speak here there's millions out there who still don't believe that joe biden was rightfully elected they think the election was stolen from them there was fraud involved and of course those are lies lies not facts lies the trump commiseration and donald trump blared out over and over and over again and that's why we have a sustained sustained divide in this country the only chance to buy them is ration

has is to appeal to people to change the tone to change how we act with each other politically and in the normal life don't yell at each other argue this course that's fine but find a middle compromise right our correspondent. in washington thank you so much for your insights. let's get a quick check of some other headlines now a suicide attack has had a busy shopping street in central baghdad authorities say more than 20 people have been killed with dozens more injured the bombings are the 1st in years to target the iraqi capital there was no immediate claim of responsibility. security forces in mali used tear gas to disperse dozens of demonstrators in the capital bamako on wednesday police also use roadblocks and motorbike convoys to stop people from gathering protesters were railing against the ongoing presence of the french military france has deployed over thousands of troops in mali since 2013 in an anti

terror operation in china's state media has reported that a worker trapped in a gold mine for more than a week has died as rescuers continue efforts to save 21 others still stuck deep underground rescuers have been in contact with 11 of those workers but the fate of the other 10 remains unknown. at least 4 people have died after an explosion ripped through a building in central madrid one building partially collapsed and the residents of a nearby nursing home were evacuated the city's mayor says initial investigations suggest that a gas leak caused the blast. and let's get a reminder now of our top story germany's chancellor angela merkel says lockdown measures are paying off but that the number of deaths is still shockingly high she also says germans must take the new variant of covert 19 seriously or risk a new wave of infections. coming up next can

joe biden provide and democrat leaf and to get the u.s. economy are back on track chris colfer has your business and one minute don't go away.

she hopes the way she can. tanya clegg obama supports belorussian activists who want to flee the country. their destination is neighboring lithuania. where they hope for a safe future far away from police violence and state oppression.

sunkist under a. new 60 minutes on d w. it's about billions. it's about power. it's about the foundation of a new movie order the new silk road. china wants to expand its influence with this trade network also in europe conflicts are inevitable the consequences unpredictable but in the end of what a good ever since the chinese investor got involved here our situation has changed before the war was privatized our work was much better and easier to china his promises of foreigners rich but in europe there's a sharp warning whoever accept money from the new superpower will become dependent on it the commitment of the shaking the chinese state has

a lot of money at its disposal. and that's how it's expanding and asserting its status and position in the world to be fair to post above board meeting. china's gateway to europe studds feb 19th on d w. number 46. the u.s. economy. also. a high tech to help them become environmentally friendly but there is a tag.